The First Portal is Opening! #scifi #romance #portals #free

Today sees the launch of an exciting new series of samplers published by the SFR Brigade. It's been a long time since our first publication back in June 2013...

8 free SFR short stories in 1
WEBSITE | GOODREADS
Available for FREE from...
 Amazon | Smashwords 
ARe | B&N |  Kobo
iTunes | Diesel Books

Experience love and adventure among the stars in TALES FROM THE SFR BRIGADE, a free digital anthology of eight Science Fiction Romance stories.

* A space captain discovers the cyborg she loves just might be her greatest enemy.

* A mind-wiped prostitute risks all when she recruits a dangerous stranger to help her escape a terrible fate.

* A prisoner-of-war confronts the comrade who loved her, then left her for dead.

* A space-obsessed physics teacher is kidnapped by a far-too-charming alien.

* An apocalypse survivor battles the biomech-enhanced hunter who seeks to capture her.

* A young artist must choose between her comfortable life on Earth or a war-torn space colony with her beloved.

* A daring thief is on the run from the alien law man who is determined to bring her to justice.

* A widowed rebel leader tries to save the last remnants of humanity, one stranger at a time.

From Earth to the furthest reaches of the galaxy, explore the worlds of Science Fiction Romance with stories from Linnea Sinclair, Marcella Burnard, Erica Hayes, Liana Brooks, Pippa Jay, Berinn Rae, Amy Laurens, and Kyndra Hatch.

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But now the SFR Brigade brings you the Portals - four free volumes of first chapters from a vast spectrum of stories falling under the science fiction romance umbrella. Volume one releases TODAY, featuring 10 authors whose stories come under the medium heat level. 

"Introducing Portals.

This isn't an anthology, it's a transport to whisk you away to a host of exciting SFR worlds. We know you're going to enjoy the trip, and you're sure to find many amazing adventures you'll want to get lost in."

Visit the Portals website HERE to find out more, and sign up to the newsletter to be among the first to find out when the next volume releases. In the meantime, you can get the first volume by clicking any of the retail links under the cover below.

Available from...
Amazon | iTunes | B&N
Kobo | Google Play | ARe

Status Update
My June project, Revived, and Reunion are still in edits. Eish. However, the June project is going well and both myself and my editor Dani are pleased with the new additions so far. I just need to give it a bit more emotional umph.
The Bones of the Sea re-released at online retailers yesterday, finally including Amazon, and is completely and utterly FREE! Well, mostly. I can only vouch for Amazon US and Amazon UK. If it isn't free at the other Amazon sites I apologize, but there's nothing I can do about it. Amazon doesn't allow publishers to set books to free, and even telling them of a lower price will only work if the competing retailer is in the right region ie if you want it free in Germany, you'll have to find the links to rival German retailers who have it for free and let Amazon know, but I can't even guarantee that'll work. Please go ahead and complain to Amazon.
However, you can get the mobi/Kindle version for free from Omnilit or Smashwords, or get the epub version at Kobo or B&N and use an online converter or Calibre to convert it to mobi. Bones will also be included as a bonus story in the back of my next release, which will hopefully be in the next couple of months.

A Scifi Short Story
Goodreads | Webpage
Available from... Amazon
Kobo | Omnilit | iTunes
Smashwords | B&N

The Blue Moon Blog Hop begins tomorrow! Eight science fiction romance authors will be posting on the blue theme - blue heroes, blue planets, blue anything - and there'll be a rafflecopter giveaway with ebooks and giftcards up for grabs. I'll be trying to sell you the attractions of the tropical planet of Metraxi that features in my time travel series Redemption. 

And for the rest of May, both books in the Redemption series are just 99 cents/pence/Euros!

A Science Fiction Romance Novel
Goodreads | Webpage 
Available from... 
Amazon | All Romance eBooks
Kobo | iTunes | B&N 
Smashwords

A Science Fiction Romance Novel
Goodreads | Webpage
Available from...
Amazon | ARe
B&N | Kobo | iTunes
Smashwords

Chook Update
Our six remaining girls are now secure in their new, stronger run and are enjoying the new facilities like a pot of grass, bigger perches, and a tray of compost to dig through. They're still getting to enjoy the garden a little, though heavily supervised and with the lower section of the garden out of bounds. Effie and Kyru are fully recovered from the fox attack and just need to regrow their missing feathers. As for the fox...we've seen it once when it tried to dig a hole into the coop, but was thoroughly thwarted by the wire skirt surrounding it. There's a lot of construction work going on in neighbouring gardens, plus the recent burst of hot, sunny weather has meant more people out in their gardens too, which is probably putting off foxy somewhat as well. However, we had weeks of the chooks wandering loose in the garden with no trouble before the attack, so I reckon we'll see it again sometime with some cunning new plan to achieve a chicken dinner...

Effie

Chiana and Pitch

Kyru, with Scoop in the background

Tuesday Teaser - Booby Trapped Pants? #scifi #romance

The summer holidays are drawing to a close, and I'll soon be back to my normal blogging schedule. In the meantime, here's another snippet to entertain you. Taken from my short story Imprint in Tales from the SFR Brigade - a free scifi romance anthology - I'm also giving you a special treat. I won a cover in a contest and decided to have it made up for Imprint, on the off chance that I may one day release the story on its on. Enjoy!

I present an excerpt taken from my short story Imprint, part of the Tales from the SFR Brigade - a free scifi romance anthology. Having been rescued from a rather nasty fate by Deluvian Marshall Tevik who'd been pursuing her, my thief Jiona has woken up in what might seem a compromising situation at first assessment...

“Care to explain why I’m half-naked in your bed?”

Tevik quirked an eyebrow and perched beside her on the edge of the mattress, still keeping out of reach. “My bed, because there was nowhere else to put you. And as for your clothing…” He had the grace to look sheepish. “Strip search. After that trick in the vaults with the knife…” With one hand he gestured to a long, dark bruise over his ribs that matched those on the opposite side from where she’d kicked him. She flinched. “I couldn’t be sure what else you might have tucked away.”

“Bet you enjoyed searching me.”

A faint blush colored his cheeks. “I did what I had to do, for my own safety as much as yours. I didn’t want any booby traps going off in your outfit. You are known for them.”

She smirked. “Thought I might have a weapon tucked away in my panties?”

His blush deepened. Her panties had been little more than a strand of lace. Less restrictive, but certainly no cover for a weapon. Not even a very small one.

“With you, anything is possible.”

Jiona laughed. “Ah, now there’s a reputation I can be proud of!”

8 free SFR short stories in 1
WEBSITE | GOODREADS
Available for FREE from...
 Amazon | Smashwords 
ARe | B&N |  Kobo
iTunes | Diesel Books

Breaking the Habit

Last year I achieved a total of 100K words. I would have loved that to have been one novel. It wasn't. I had a batch of novellas and shorts stories, written from scratch or finished off from the previous year. That's okay. Right now, I want to have several things out to increase my visibility. I plan to go back to writing novels next year.

But one of the longest projects from last year is also the freakiest. Freaky because it's a genre I'd never written and rarely read, with a paranormal creature I said I'd never write, and written in first person POV which in general I dislike reading. (The moral of this story is never say never, BTW). As if that wasn't enough reason for a meltdown, it also has a request on it from a publisher.

But aside from all that, the thing that bothers me most is the time scale. Now, I would love to write and publish more than I currently do. I try. But it never works out. Generally it takes me a year to eighteen months from the moment I put down the first words until I consider the work ready for submission (short stories being the exception - that's usually three months tops). The recent freaky WIP was written as part of NaNoWriMo, though that finished with the story at around 36K. As of last Friday, it's 46K. But because it had a request on it, rather than setting it aside once the original draft was complete and coming back to it, I've pushed ahead nonstop. Apart from working on a couple of short stories and finishing off an older project, I've been revising, editing, researching and rewriting this since November. That isn't how I normally work. And once I got close to submission, I freaked out. Because even though I've probably put as much, if not more effort and hours into this, it still feels I haven't spent enough time and love on it compared to all the others. Submitting a novella after just three months?! Inconceivable! Lol.

I *could* have spent another month on it. I'm not convinced that it would have been any more ready. On Friday I hit send, just three and a bit months after starting the story in November. The problem is I feel like I've now set myself a precedent. If I can produce one 46K novella in three months, then I should be able to do four a year. Or two 90K novels. I'd love to do that. However, with other things that are currently going on behind the scenes, I can't commit to that. Not this year. And it feels like I've done NaNoWriMo all over again by working solidly and intensely on the same piece all this time. I'm exhausted! Hence the lack of blogging (sorry!)
So now the freaky story has gone, I feel relieved instead of the usual anxiety over submissions. It's been such an obsession over the past few weeks to hone this story and have it right and out that now it's like I've been released, lol.

Have you ever had a project that was totally out of your comfort zone? One that made you question your sanity?

Pippa's Journal

Gethyon was accorded Most Awesome Psychic Talent in the recent SFR Galaxy Awards! Woot! With Keir winning Best May to September Romance last year, I'm proud to call myself a double SFR Galaxy Award winner. :) To check out the other awesome winners, please visit the awards site HERE.

 Also this month I have set a new record for myself. I currently have four different pieces out on submission. FOUR! I've had the same piece subbed out to two or three different places before, but never different works. Admittedly one is a novella to my editor for her professional opinion on whether it's worthy to self publish, but still. That's just as nerve-wracking. I also have two shorts scheduled for self publishing in October and November. The PNR is with my editor, while the SFR is due for completion this month alongside another I plan to release next year. Potentially I could have six pieces out over the next year. That's pretty mind-blowing. Of course, most of those I have no control over. Watch this space! (Update - actually, I got a rejection yesterday. But within a few hours I'd had a request on something else, so I am STILL on four submissions. Publishing is just crazy!).

Happenings
Keir is still currently unavailable as I wait for the new contract from Kensington, but you still have until the 14th February to enter the giveaways for either a now rare print edition or my one remaining digital version HERE. There's also an ultra-rare print edition of Tales from the SFR Brigade to be won. In fact, right now you could win my entire backlist in one format or another. My YA SciFi Gethyon is part of a huge giveaway sponsored by Champagne Books HERE, and it comes as one of forty titles with a Kindle paperwhite. Plus you have one more day to enter a SciFi romance giveaway run by Lyn Brittan which includes my short story Terms & Conditions Apply HERE.

Breathless Press are running a critique session from the 14th-16th February. Feedback is always helpful, and the freaky story I submitted got a full request as part of a similar event they ran for NaNoWriMo.

The SFR Galaxy Award winners were announced at the end of January, and you can check them all out HERE.

You still have until the 14th February to submit to the special Women Destroy SF edition of Lightspeed Magazine. Go HERE for details. C'mon girls, let's blow them away!

Ping Pong
Bad Boys and Redeemable Heroes. Laurie and Donna, I'm with you. Even the most evil of villains has to have a shot of redemption, even if they prove their villainy by refusing to take it. A non-redeemable hero? No. To me, that's a contradiction. And it does entirely depend on the story and circumstances as to whether I forgive infidelity. I can't explain that without giving away one of my own upcoming plots. I'm anxious to see how people take it because I struggled with it myself. How much are people willing to forgive in a certain situation?

Watching Star Wars Revenge of the Sith made me change my feelings over Darth Vader as a redeemed character. When we only had the original trilogy we knew he was evil, and although I always felt he was a bit slow in leaping to Luke's defence at the end of ROTJ, I felt he'd earned his salvation. However, after knowing he killed younglings in the Jedi temple through the prequels, I now can't forgive him. That was one step too far for me (I still don't buy his reason for turning to the Dark Side anyhow, but that's another discussion).

My Writing Process - Making Sense out of Chaos

Just lately, I've realized there is some method to my madness, although it may not seem like it. I'm a pantser and I don't write linearly. This means that I may start the story in the middle or even at the end, and/or throw a bunch of unconnected scenes into a document. Usually I do have the opening scene, but not always. These are the bones of my story, on which I build.

The next step it to flesh them out and fill the gaps. Often this means I need to research stuff if I've included things or settings I'm not actually familiar with. In my current WIP, that meant Cajun expressions, Louisiana, voodoo, Catholicism, zombie parades, luxury cars, and the average price for a burger and fries. :P
Once that's done, I consider it a complete first draft. Note draft. It still isn't a proper story. Next comes what I lovingly refer to as the rip and repair edit. This usually involves deleting or rewriting chunks or, because I don't write linearly, moving large sections around. I basically gut the story and discard or reattach. Sounds messy and often is. I guess that's a consequence of the disorganized way I write. But it's very cathartic. *insert mad scientist laugh here*

After that, it may take several smaller edits/revisions to give me a finished draft. At this stage I often use Editminion.com. It's a handy little tool, but an automated editing system is NEVER going to replace a real live human editor (well, not with current technology anyway, and if that ever happens perhaps robots will be writing the stories in the first place. Hmm...). Every little helps though. Editminion catches passive voice, weak words, cliches, repeated words etc.

Lastly I'll go back and read through several times, checking my timeline and making sure I'm not leaping from night to day, or changing the colour of clothing or whatever, or adding additional limbs and the like. I sketch in any extra details. I check for repetitive words and phrases.

When I feel I'm just re-tweaking tiny details, I consider myself done. By this stage I've normally played around with cover art and calculated my editing costs if I plan to self publish, or at least sketched out my cover letter and synopsis if I plan to submit instead.

I'll confess not everything gets beta readers or seen by crit partners (bad author!). My current WIP is such a freak that it went to a couple of fellow authors very early on because I was fretting over the location, language and religion. Part of it went into a critique event during NaNoWriMo. So it has been seen and assessed. Right now I'm close to the final adjustments and submission. It has a request on it! *bounces*

So how do you write? Does my method horrify you? :P

Pippa's Journal

I've been struggling with things the last few weeks, both writing and real life, with both effecting the other. My phone, which I'd come to rely on for pretty much everything, died totally just before Christmas. This severely restricted my internet and social interaction over the holiday, and even impacted my writing since I do much of it on my phone when my computer time is limited. Then my boiler started misbehaving. Then my washing machine died on New Year's Day. None of it serious, but together they made life difficult.
On the publishing side, Lyrical Press Inc., who released my debut novel Keir, announced they had been bought by Kensington. While potentially great news, it means Keir is currently unavailable to buy just now, and it could be a couple of months before it's back up even once the new contracts have been signed. I'm still waiting to get mine. :/

Add to that the closure of my latest publisher - Definition House - meaning Keir's sequel and my SFR novella Tethered are now homeless, meant 2014 got off to a dismal start for me. However, I have tried to see this as an opportunity for new things rather than a disaster. All the repairs are done, I have a new and upgraded phone, hubs came home with a spare computer from work which is now up and running and connected to the WiFi (we've been without a main computer since July!) and whatever happens, Keir AND Keir's Fall will be back sometime this year. Never give up - never surrender!

On the positive side, my cyberpunk short has been submitted to the Women Destroy SF Lightspeed magazine special edition. I'm still waiting for news on my decopunk superhero romance out on submission. Hopefully this week or next my freaky YA supernatural romance will also go out.

Happenings
With Keir unavailable and as a special treat, there are two fabulous giveaways on Goodreads right now! One with three now rare print editions of Keir, and one for an ultra-rare, cannot-be-bought-anywhere print edition of Tales from the SFR Brigade! Go HERE!

Have you submitted to Women Destroy SF yet?! You have until the 14th February. Go to http://submissions.johnjosephadams.com/women-destroy-sf/submit

Ping Pong
Donna, I too would like to see Samantha's follow on story. What a shame they kind of skimped on the potential. And sorry about the cold! We've had one of our mildest winters on record here in the UK. The downswing is it's been dismally damp, though we're lucky to have avoided the terrible floods in some areas, and we've taken a battering with the winds, especially on the coasts. I still think we should have evolved to hibernate.

The Hunt for the Elusive Reviewer

About three years ago, fellow author Lauri J Owen and I began a project. Between us, we decided to compile the most comprehensive list of book reviewers EVER! Two weeks ago, the list finally topped 300 reviewers, but I already knew a large chunk of it needed updating. We'd been busy adding new ones whenever we found them, but not going back to check those we had. Last year, a woman emailed me to share her huge file of romance reviewers and pointing out several dead and broken links on mine. But it's only in the last fortnight that I've really started a major overhaul as I hunt for suitable reviewers for the SFR Brigade's anthology.

I have to say it's been, on occasion, disheartening. Out of the 300 reviewers, I'm now down to 269 live and accurate links (many were dead, hadn't been posted to in over a year, had retired or quit, or the domain names had lapsed).

Of those, 44 are currently closed to review requests, with several others having restricted their openings by date, genre, or other preferences. 39 don't take self published works - an increase since we created the list - with some who formerly took self published work now rejecting it, or restricting it to authors previously trad/small press published and/or previously reviewed by the site in question. Some sites who do take it require a sample first and/or that the book has been professionally edited. In contrast, one site specializing in self published works specified they WON'T take anything that has been structurally and copy edited.

20 sites don't take ebooks (a slight rise, and perhaps surprising considering the increasing sales of digital versions). Many are not accepting ebooks either due to a backlog (either in general, or of ebooks specifically) or if a book is digital only. Some are specifying they won't accept an ebook that's only available on Amazon, while some will only consider a request if the book IS on Amazon. Several review sites take ebooks ONLY.

So, out of the remaining 269 reviewers, I've currently made 100 requests to those who accept digital-only, self-published science fiction romance. Out of those, I've had 7 say yes. Two others said no but offered me a book spotlight, with a third saying they may not review it (depending on time) but still offering me a promotional spot. One said no full stop. One had already reviewed it and another three had it on their TBR pile prior to my request. On a point of interest - one review site that had very tight restrictions on accepting self published works was very interested when I told her Linnea Sinclair had a story in the anthology (I discovered she was a fan of Linnea's after reading around on her website - this is where research is sooo important!). The rest have not (yet) responded. It's difficult to know how many aren't interested since many say they won't respond to requests unless they're accepting, or that no response after a certain time means not interested. Some ask you to nudge them if you don't hear.

But the number of dead links and those closed to requests, does this mean the professional reviewer is becoming a rare critter? Why are reviewers closing or restricting their requests? Is it the ease of self publishing which has overwhelmed these reviewers into closing? Is it the bad self published ones outnumbering the excellent ones, where authors have taken the time to have their work properly edited? The sheer volume of books now? The advent of eBooks, with many titles being digital only? Authors behaving badly? Maybe a mixture of all of that?

I can understand why even the most addicted bookaholic can get overwhelmed. I started reviewing for a site before I was published, then a second after getting my first contract. I made a commitment to review everything I read on Goodreads and Amazon. But I have less and less time to read, and I find myself growing ever more picky over books. Last year I had a DNF at my first review site. I've turned down pretty much every request from the second because either the book didn't appeal or the sample failed to impress. Last week I finally posted the review for a book I'd bought myself and read 14 months ago. Sheesh, how bad do I feel about that delay?! If I ran my own review site, the guilt alone would have me close it down in shame. The thing is that when I *do* read, it tends to be in a voracious burst, and I don't want to stop to write reviews. The one good thing about Goodreads is that you can at least rate without writing a review, unlike Amazon.

But according to a recent reader survey, it's reviews on Amazon that count more than those on Goodreads (which makes you wonder what Amazon might do knowing that. Or maybe they already know?). It makes sense to me that reviews on the actual retail site matter more - perhaps that final deciding factor in whether an unsure reader clicks that tempting buy button, even after all the sock puppetry and fake reviews. Now that Amazon have stopped restricting reviews by authors, I'm back to posting on there. But I have one rule. If I can't rate a book three stars at least, I won't post it. Cowardly? No. I'd just rather rave about the books I love than waste time on negative reviews for those I didn't. Not that I have an issue with anyone who writes a negative review, even if it's on one of MY books. I just don't want to do it myself. And while some may think me biased toward any of my fellow authors because I know/work with/am friends with, I'm not. If I didn't like your book, I won't have reviewed it. If I liked it, I'll have or will be rating it everywhere I can. It just might take a while...

For anyone associated with the anthology who would like a list of the review sites I submitted to, and what responses there have been so far (just in case any of you spot a new reviewer you think might like Tales and want to check it hasn't already been subbed there) you can email me at pippajaygreen at gmail dot com for the list. Any reviews I catch (not all reviewers notify you when and if a review goes live so I'm relying on Google Alerts) will be posted to the fanpage if they're good (and bad ones possibly to the Brigade group in case there's any feedback the authors might find useful).

Pippa's Journal
I'm still waiting for news on four projects. one of which at least I should hear about in the next 24 hours. Aside from working on my reviewers list and submitting Tales, I've been focusing on promotion rather than writing over the summer, and trying to get my sites up to date and arrange events for September. Hopefully I'll be back to writing once my monsters are back to school. I've just finished tweaking a project, and it looks like I'll be finishing my decopunk superhero story and a couple of Venus Ascendant shorts I have in mind to join Terms & Conditions Apply.


Ping Pong

Donna, enjoy your vacation!

Laurie, hope the month from hell won't be as hellish as you feared!

A Pair of Projects and a new Who

Created by Liza O'Connor

 
Summer is a hard time for me to write when I have my three monsters home for the holidays. But this year I don't even feel the inclination. Having done a short story and three sets of edits since the start of the year, attempting and once more failing CampNaNoWriMo, plus waiting for news on four projects that I hope to have contracts on, has apparently drained my muse. She's currently taking a break on the outer rim of the galaxy, and will let me know when she's ready to teleport back. :P

But I had two main projects I wanted to work on as and when time allowed. Firstly, I bit the bullet and claimed my dealer's table for WorldCon - LonCon 3 to be held in the UK in August 2014. Eeep! I have no idea what I'm doing but hope to gain a bit of experience at another con beforehand. Aside from taking my own work to the world's biggest scifi convention, I decided I wanted to represent the SFR Brigade too (and the talented other scifi authors I have the privilege of knowing). Top of my list of things that I want to promote is Tales from the SFR Brigade. Now, I could just print up leaflets/cards and put up a poster about it with links to the retail sites, but I know that people still like to see a physical product in their hands, despite the huge leap in popularity of the ebook. So I discussed the possibility of doing a one-off print edition to take as a display item to the con with Laurie. Just one that I can hand to people to look at, then give them a leaflet if they express an interest. After all, the dang thing is FREE, and hopefully by then it'll be up on Amazon too. So, more than a year since I've last done any work with a POD service, I'm back at lulu.com relearning all the things I learned back before I had a contract, when I thought I'd be self-publishing my work. At the moment it's still in the early draft stages as I need to reformat the master document to get rid of some weird spacings, and on the possibility of more artwork from the cover artist to give it a decent back cover. I'll update you all when there's been more significant progress. In the meantime, be aware that I'm willing to take swag (and even books as interest and packing space allows) from Brigade members and fellow scifi authors (it must be SF related) but I'll post again closer to the time. If you want to get updates, you can join the event on Facebook here.

Secondly, I volunteered to go review seeking for the anthology. I'd already intended to do so on a smaller scale as I'm still trying to cadge more reviews for my other June release - my YA scifi Gethyon - plus my extensive book reviewers list is in desperate need of an update. So I've combined the projects, working my way through the list updating as I go, adding new ones, and looking for reviewers that will accept either book. It's a slow process as there are far more romance review sites on the list than any other genre, and of those many prefer to focus on contemporary and/or paranormal rather than scifi. My small but favourite group of reviewers have already said yes (bless 'em!) but I still have a long way to go. Of course, there's absolutely no guarantee that the reviewers who accept the books will give a positive review, but that's a truth all authors have to face when they put their work out there. If you can't learn to shrug off the negative ones well...I'm sorry, but you're going to find it hard going. The SFR Brigaders have also been discussing reviews and how to go about seeking them - you can check out a couple of blog posts I did on how NOT to do it here.

Who's the New Who?

What kind of geek would I be if I didn't mention the recent announcement of who will play the next Doctor? With a 35 minute show devoted to the reveal (something never done before and a bit overkill IMO, but I understand why they wanted to make a performance out of the event) we learned Peter Capaldi will be the new Doctor.

I'm pleased for several reasons. Aside from thoroughly enjoying Capaldi's protrayal of the twisted fallen Angel Islington in the BBC dramatization of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, Capaldi is a long time fan of the show. He's already appeared in DW in Fires of Pompei, and in Torchwood's Children of Earth (and, funnily enough, as a Time Traveller in The All New Alexei Sayle Show - an episode called Drunk in Time). I'm also glad to see an older actor take the role. I really thought the BBC would keep going younger (and Matt Smith was the first actor to be younger than me - an inevitable but disturbing fact). This has led to a lot of complaints that Capaldi isn't 'hot'. Well, aside from being in the generation where the hotness or not of the Doctor was irrelevant, I'd say it depends on your perspective. I know a lot of older fans who find Capaldi quite dishy, but I still say it wouldn't matter to a true fan. I'm sure there's a lot of male fans to whom it will always been inconsequential. If your enjoyment of the series is based solely on the attractiveness of the actor playing the Doctor to you personally, you're going to be disappointed at least once in a while. You're also missing the point of the show...
I also know there's a lot of unhappiness over it being yet another white guy. What can I say? Perhaps it makes me sexist AND racist, but The Doctor has always been that, and despite my desire for equality in SF, that concept is stuck in my head. I wouldn't have been horrified by either (but I can imagine there might have been a huge outcry from some areas having seen enough negativity simply over Capaldi, sheesh). It would have been a bigger surprise, and in some ways I almost expected it after the announcement of a special show for the reveal. I think it's unfortunate that we've lost the Time Lord society in the story, which at least would have allowed for diversity in their race - as shown in Star Trek Voyager with Tuvok, the first black Vulcan. If the Doctor can regenerate into anything, why not into another kind of alien? (Oh, all right, we all know in reality the expense and trouble that would be for the SFX department and potential discomfort for the actor make that less feasible). But then, the beauty of being a SF/SFR author (and one of the reasons I started writing) is that I can create my own universe of diversity, and accept the bias in an iconic show like Doctor Who without having to hate on it. As the Angel Islington once said when the heroes of Neverwhere laughed at his offer to join him, "Ah, me..."
In consolation to those unhappy with Capaldi I'll say this. The Doctor will regenerate again. And again. And again. He will always change, and there will always be people who don't like it. Personally I can't wait to see how Capaldi will play the part, and how this will change the dynamic between the Doctor and Clara. (BTW I also posted on my blog about the prospect of a female Who, and why, surprisingly, I'm not all for one. Check it out here).

Pippa's Journal

No solid news to impart. Gethyon was in the LASR Book of the Month Contest at the end of last week - sadly it didn't place. I have tentative progress on two pieces of work that I can't yet announce (I HATE sitting on things like that when all I want to do is share!), and by this time next week I'll know if my cyberpunk short story will have made it into an anthology. If not, I've also had an offer on that from elsewhere.


Discoveries

I was desperately hunting for blog post ideas and came across this - The Lazy Bloggers Post Generator. You can vary most of the information to be included, or just leave it and hit Create Post and take pot luck. Here's my maybe less than humorous result. :P

Dudes I just discovered I have not updated this since 1999... You would not believe the fairy dust I have to clean up. I'm so sorry!.

I am lost in a sea of pseudo-olde-english with setting fire to people wearing Crocs, being distracted by the shiny, just generally being the life of the party to my kids, my day is a nightmare I would like to wake up from 3am to way past dusk. I am not being a whinging Pom or anything. perchance.

I absolutely, positively promise won't blog until the next time booze prices go up and I have to get sober for a while. No, really! What do you mean you don't believe me?

Hey, some days that would be better than nothing, right? Er, right?

Pssst!

A contest for unpublished and published (but uncontracted) authors!

****Permission to forward****
Turn up the heat on your writing career. This contest is open to any unpublished/uncontracted romance manuscript by all authors.

GRAND PRIZE: The grand prize winner of the contest will have their entire manuscript (400 pages, Courier, 12pt, Double spaced) reviewed by two professional editors at The Author's Red Room. TheAuthorsRedRoom.com

Final round judges

1) Historical/Regency
Editor - Holly Blanck, St. Martins
Senior Editor - Esi Sogah, Kensington

2) Fantasy, Futuristic & Paranormal
Assistant Editor - Kelly Quinn, Tor
Editor –Kristine Swartz, Assistant Editor, The Berkley Publishing Group

3) Romantic Suspense
Editorial Assistant- Lauren Plude, Grand Central Publishing
Editor Samhain -Tera Kleinfelter

4) Contemporary Long/Single Title
Editor –Deborah Werksman, Sourcebooks, Inc
Editor at large, Sue Grimshaw, Random House

5) Series ContemporaryAssociate Editor – Johanna Raisanen, Harlequin
Senior Editor Sweetheart Rose – Leanne Morgena, The Wild Rose Press

For More Information, entry form, and rules, see website at
http://valleyofthesunrw.com/hot-prospects-contest/

  

For questions please email Voshotprospects@yahoo.com

Linda Andrews
Valley of the Sun Hot Prospects Chair

Ping Pong

@Donna - feeling a little envy over the conference. I have no idea if I'll ever be able to attend an event like that. And I'm still waiting on that Hollywood SF that will satisfy me fully sight, sound and story... And totally agree that Hollywood still isn't getting the great stories to match the great SFX. Why aren't they getting that?!

@Laurie - great review, and nothing encourages me to pick up a book than hear someone rave about something!

The Making of a SFR Anthology

How does a Science Fiction Romance community end up publishing its own anthology of stories?

It all started with a conversation in the fall of 2012 about the visibility of the SFR Brigade Fan Page on the Facebook discussion group and a suggestion that came from JC Cassels:

"People are fans when things are either tangible (products) or they are emotionally invested. That's why I think an anthology to "brand" us and raise brand awareness is key to exciting people about the Fan Page."

This was met with enthusiasm from the membership. A poll was conducted that showed there was enough support from the group to give the project a green light.

Damn the ion cannons, we were going for it!

Assembly: How it all Worked

An editorial team volunteered for the project, including author JC Cassels (who first suggested the idea) as Chief Editor, author Paula Diane Dooley as Developmental Editor, and SFR Brigade founder Laurie A. Green (that would be me) as Editor-At-Large.

A call for submissions went out. During this time, it was my job to track the submissions by title, author, word count and status as they were received. For the sake of fairness, we made a decision to judge each story on its own merits without knowing who the author was, so I would strip out all author ID information and submit the manuscript to the editorial team anonymously under an assigned submission number. As we worked through the process, I also tracked the status of each story.

As the submission deadline approached, we realized we needed to move the date back. The 2012 holidays were creating havoc for those trying to get their submissions in, so with one Mayan end-of-the-world doomsday averted, we extended the deadline another month and received several more submissions (at least two of which were included in the finished product).

Choosing which stories would be accepted was a difficult task. Each and every story had merits and pluses.

Stat-wise, we had:
20 submissions
 7 initial acceptances -- including a story by co-blogger Pippa Jay :)
 5 Rejections (generally due to lack of romantic elements)
 3 Revise and Resubmit requests for this anthology
 5 Rejections with invitations to revise and submit to a future anthology

Of the three Revise and Resubmit requests for this anthology, one chose not to resubmit. That left us with nine stories to go into the editing phase.

Original Cover

Next came a truly fun part -- the author reveal! It was like a little mini-party as stories were matched to writers, with quite a few happy surprises in the process. Only one story had been recognized immediately as the work of a particular author because of the characters; Linnea Sinclair's "Mission: Nam Selan" is a continuation of her much-loved GAMES OF COMMAND novel featuring Captain "Sass" Sebastian and Admiral Branden Kel-Paten. (BIG WOOT! Ya'll know GoC is one of my all-time favorite SFR stories and getting to read the continuing adventure was a real treat. If you're a fan too, you definitely need to grab a copy of the anthology.)

Then came a head-scratching step--developing a contract. Using templates from a variety of sources, we put together the best possible contract for a free anthology to be published by an online writers' community. We sought out some professional help on the initial draft. I have to say a big thank-you to my agent, Amanda Luedeke, for offering her insights and suggestions that we incorporated into the final version.

With contracts signed, we moved to the next stage as Paula Diane Dooley began working with authors on the editing process and a seven-member cover art selection team was organized, managed by JC Cassels and including authors Ella Drake, Jody Wallace, Cathy Pegau, Heather Massey, Melisse Aires and Jean Walker (aka author Veronica Scott). The team worked on selecting two final covers from among the eight cover submissions that went to the general membership for a vote.

And ~ voila! ~ we had cover art!

During this time, I communicated with and updated all the authors on the process through the SFRpreview email, requested Author Page information, blurbs, loglines, and drafted the About the SFR Brigade piece, and also corresponded with the chosen cover artist--Melody Simmons of Ebook Indie Covers.

Our next task was to wrangle the story order, taking into consideration the voice, setting, length and premise of each story. Each had it's own strengths and we tried to place them accordingly. We did a lot of moving and shuffling until we were all happy with the line up. It was quite a shell game!

Then...a wrench in the works. One of the authors chose to withdraw her work part-way through the editing process. That left us deciding the final line-up of the now eight stories and gave us a bit more work to do. I went back to the cover artist, Melody Simmons, asking if she'd be willing to change the cover art. Not only did she graciously agree, she had the tweaked design back to us within 24 hours and it looked awesome. She was fantastic to work with.

So now we had the final line-up of stories and authors:

• "Imprint" by Pippa Jay 
• "Allure" by Amy Laurens 
• "Nobody's Present" by Marcella Burnard 
• "The Stranger" by Kyndra Hatch 
• "Mission: Nam Selan" by Linnea Sinclair 
• "Prime Sensations" by Liana Brooks 
• "Envy's Revenge" by Berinn Rae 
• "Whiskey and Starshine" by Erica Hayes

As we moved into the final phase, we had a talented team pitch in--Brigade members and non-members alike--for the copy editing duties, including Laurel C. Kriegler who served as chief copy editor, Cary Caffrey, Patty Hammond and Danielle Cassels. You can read more about our copy editors here.

Final Phase Begins!

Chief Editor JC Cassels compiled and formatted the edited stories as they were completed, and added the About the Author, About the Editors, About the Copy Editors, and About the SFR Brigade information to complete the final project. Meanwhile, Paula Diane Dooley wrote a spot-on cover blurb:

Experience love and adventure among the stars in TALES FROM THE SFR BRIGADE, a free digital anthology of eight Science Fiction Romance stories. 

* A space captain discovers the cyborg she loves just might be her greatest enemy.

* A mind-wiped prostitute risks all when she recruits a dangerous stranger to help her escape a terrible fate.

* A prisoner-of-war confronts the comrade who loved her, then left her for dead.

* A space-obsessed physics teacher is kidnapped by a far-too-charming alien.

* An apocalypse survivor battles the biomech-enhanced hunter who seeks to capture her.

* A young artist must choose between her comfortable life on Earth or a war-torn space colony with her beloved.

* A daring thief is on the run from the alien law man who is determined to bring her to justice.

* A widowed rebel leader tries to save the last remnants of humanity, one stranger at a time.

From Earth to the furthest reaches of the galaxy, explore the worlds of Science Fiction Romance with stories from Linnea Sinclair, Marcella Burnard, Erica Hayes, Liana Brooks, Pippa Jay, Berinn Rae, Amy Laurens, and Kyndra Hatch.

Ready for Launch

With all engines a go, we looked at a release date of July 14th, but JC managed an early limited release through Smashwords as a shakedown run. A few glitches have been cleaned up and the anthology has now been submitted to these additional sites for pending release:

• Apple
• Barnes and Noble
• Diesel
• Kindle
• Kobo
• Page Foundry
• Sony

IMHO, the end result was well worth all the effort . Each and every story in this anthology is an outstanding piece of work, and there's such a wonderful variety that it's sure to offer something for every reader's taste. The shortest work is under 2,000 words and the longest is about 12,500.

Achieving Orbit

The first reviews on Tales from the SFR Brigade are starting to trickle in, and to date they're all four and five stars. Two include a book review by C. E. Kilgore and a Goodreads review from Jo of Mixed Book Bag Reviews.

The anthology has already made it into the top five of several Goodreads Listopia lists, including:

• Sci-fi Romance Anthologies
• Fantasy/UF/PNR/Sci-Fi Shorts
• Anthologies

And is climbing steadily upward on some of the big lists, like:

• Best Short Story Collections  (currently 19th out of 380 books)
• 2013 Releases  (currently 96th out of 469 books)
• Indie Authors to Watch  (currently 161st out of 1,173 books)

You can see all Goodreads Listopias containing Tales from the SFR Brigade at a glance here.

Ready to Grab Your Copy?

Please do. It's on the house! You can find it on Smashwords right now in most available formats:

Tales from the SFR Brigade

(Note: If the link doesn't work, try turning off your adult filter on Smashwords. The anthology contains adult content which is not suitable to readers under 17 and may be offensive to some adults.)

Mission Accomplished

It takes a village, or in this case, a Brigade task force. The anthology wouldn't have happened without a dedicated team determined to put out a product the Brigade--and the Science Fiction Romance community in general--could be proud of. My hat's off to Paula Diane Dooley, JC Cassels, our fabulous authors, and the entire Can-Do team who worked on this project.

Job well done, crew.

To learn more about Tales from the SFR Brigade, the authors and their other works, editors, copy editors and the SFR Brigade, please visit the Anthology Website.

You can also read JC Cassels blog about the making of Tales from the SFR Brigade here.

~~~ * ~~~

When the Muse Misbehaves

I've seen several authors say there's no such thing as a muse, and others virtually tearing out their hair on Twitter because of this strange entity. For me, the muse is a single personality made up of all the voices in my head. The idea that wakes me up at 4am and won't go away. The mind-numbing lack of words at that essential moment in the story. The warren of plot bunnies that appear mid project. And the sudden burning urge to work on 'that' old story right in the middle of urgent edits with a deadline. She's capricious, elusive when needed and a persistent noise when I want her to shut up. She can be the genius who solves the backed-into-a-corner jam in the midst of housework, or the sudden silence in the same situation two days later. She's a tease and a torture. Yes, she's also still me, but she's the part of me that gets my characters into trouble, then sits back and laughs while I try to fix it. Oh, how I love and hate her!

Right now we're at an impasse. Content edits for Imprint - my SFR short for the Brigade anthology  - are done and off for copy edits. I've had and checked the ARC for my scifi novel Gethyon, due out in just 11 days, squeee!  All my guest posts for the virtual tour are done bar one, and ready to send off. I'm going to be busy until the end of June, but with nothing else contracted right now, I'm looking at my next project to complete.

The problem is, I just can't decide what to work on next. It isn't lack of ideas. While muse may not have given me more than a few tenuous new ideas over the last month, I have seventeen - yep, SEVENTEEN - current WIPs on my hard drive. Everything from ready-to-sub manuscripts to drafts that are more at the coal than rough diamond stage. A short story that's been through first round edits but still isn't ready two years after writing it. A superhero romance that started as an urban fantasy, went scifi, steampunk, dieselpunk, and is currently decopunk/alternate timeline. There are more Quin/Keir stories, a space pirate vampire novella, and even a dark fantasy romance, started for a contest and never finished. And lastly a folder with a collection of CAPTCHA words, odd bits of tech, some lines, titles, and random paragraphs of ideas all waiting for a home.

And I just can't choose between them. About half a dozen are clamouring for attention for different reasons, like a bunch of toddlers at nursery. The series of books that I'd planned for Keir are kind of in limbo until the fate of Book Two is decided. Three stories for Quin are all demanding that I work on them, and with the sudden arrival of New Adult as a category that's growing in popularity, I feel I should finish her first adventure. I should do the edits on the short, one of Quin's stories set before Gethyon and Keir (yes, I'm working backwards. Don't ask me why - the stories have been in my head for 20 years but I'm only just writing them down, sigh). Then there's the story with Quin and Darion. There *are* readers who want to know what happened there.

And nearly everything that I have finished has some kind of sequel now. Terms & Conditions Apply has one, plus another spin off idea (I can blame Diane Dooley for that last one). Tethered, another finished work that may have found a home (can't comment on that just now, shh!) has a sequel. Even Imprint has a follow up story that's currently novella length (and I'm hoping to reach at least 80K).

In the past, one story normally fends off the others and refuses to be left. Now they're all shouting "me, me, ME!" with equal intensity. Maybe I should start something new? Maybe I should take a break?

But I can't. The need to finish *something* is like an itch I can't shake off.  When I first thought about being published, I fretted over running out of ideas. Now I fret over whether I'll get them all written in my lifetime!
Does your muse have a personality? A life of its own? Or do you think I'm a little more crazy than the average author for thinking of inspiration as a person? :P And how do you decide what comes next?

Pippa's Journal

Action!
I've mentioned some already. Content edits on Imprint are done. Line edits will be going back to my main editor before the final set comes to me for tweaking and polishing. My logline, blurb and author page have all been submitted. I'm so excited! This will be my first adventure as part of an anthology, and having read a couple of the other submissions I can promise you a fun read.

Gethyon releases in just eleven days!! *bounces*  I'll be touring for the whole of June to celebrate. My final PDF arrived yesterday (it looks so pretty with the cover on!) so I'll be hunting for review sites later today to submit to.

Happenings
The SFR Brigade's 2nd Midsummer blog hop needs you! Even if you can't sign up to take part, I'd really appreciate it if anyone could put the button or banner on their blog to help promote the event. Email me at sfrbrigadebloghop (at) Gmail (dot) com if you'd like the button. I'm so excited about organising this event!

Discoveries
This is something fun I found on Twitter just today. A random alien race generator. The creator admits it isn't perfect, but again something that might help spark ideas. You can read about it here.

Ping Pong
@Laurie - so sorry about your missing ending. A timely warning to authors - always be sure to save and back up your work! Having lost my computer a couple of weeks ago, and with a spate of similar disasters among my fellow authors, I second this completely.
@Sharon - great post on whether the behaviour of authors reflects on people still buying their work. I saw comments to a post about unethical marketing where the reader said she didn't want an author to be her friend via social media, and she didn't like this push by publishers and internet gurus for authors to connect with readers. A view that goes against most marketing advice. We'd be less aware of minor author meltdowns, but then, wouldn't fewer people get to hear of our books? Being an author on the web is a real double edged sword.
@Donna - am I forgiven for not being a devoted ST fan yet? Lol. Hubs and I have been debating going to see STiD, but I think babysitting issues will probably mean us waiting on the DVD. =/

SFR Brigade Unveils Cover Art for Upcoming Anthology

The SFR Brigade community of Science Fiction Romance writers and authors is in the process of developing an anthology of SFR stories for an upcoming summer release--Tales from the SFR Brigade.

As part of the process, the community put together a team to recruit cover art submissions and select just two designs to go to the overall membership for a vote. Today we're revealing the final product.

So, with no further fanfare... *whips off the veil*

The goal of the anthology is to promote quality works of SFR and to entice new readers to sample the subgenre.  The anthology will be offered for free. 

We're proud that the Spacefreighters Lounge blog partnership had quite a bit of involvement in the anthology. One of Pippa Jay's short stories--"Imprint"--was accepted for inclusion, and Laurie A. Green worked behind the scenes as a coordinator and editor for the project.

Of the anthology, Laurie says, "I'm very excited about the anthology and its potential to introduce the Science Fiction Romance universe to a multitude of new fans. There are nine exciting stories by nine different SFR authors, some very well known in the subgenre and others who are emerging as talented new voices. The stories include near future, apocalyptic, space opera, Earth-based and alien romance, and have it all--adventure, mystery, suspense, high stakes, and of course, romance! You might even be surprised to discover a couple of favorite SFR characters among the cast."

As time draws near for the launch of Tales of the SFR Brigade, we'll announce it here.

Cover art designed by Melody Simmons of Ebook Indie Covers. Special thanks to Melody for her expertise with the final design.